BEng Electronic Engineering with Business Management, School of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering
"The support is immense and I have never found a point where I’ve needed help and there hasn’t been someone there"
Why did you originally apply to do your chosen course at Birmingham?
The reason I chose to come to the School of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering was simply for 3 main reasons. Firstly, out of all the Universities I applied for and visited it was at Birmingham I found the course content most interesting. This came about at the open day where I spoke to a student and was drawn by the Robot Project in the 2nd year which looked really exciting! Secondly I felt my passion for the subject and individuality as a student was recognised due the fact at the Applicant Visit Days the lecturers and staff spent a lot of time to get to know me one to one as opposed to other universities. Lastly, the facilities and standard at Birmingham were just on another level, really glad to be here!
What do you think are the best points of your course?
I really enjoy the flexibility of the course throughout, as it provides many opportunities for you to tailor your degree towards your interests the way you want. For example, there are opportunities to combine your degree with railway engineering, energy, computer engineering and even business management. I have a strong passion for business, and hope to start up my own business one day, having this flexibility in my degree allowed me to study Electronic Engineering with Business Management, which has been very beneficial to me.
Another great point is the amount of support from staff. We all get a personal tutor, one to one time with lecturers if we need it, a dedicated team of staff to sort out extenuating circumstances, a dedicated liaison to provide us with everything we need for an industrial placement or graduate opportunity (from the connections to the one to one support in applications). The support is immense and I have never found a point where I’ve needed help and there hasn’t been someone there.
The course is updated yearly with real up to date research, meaning you are always learning content related to current real engineering in the industry today. This means once you graduate, the step required for you to apply your degree to your graduate job is a lot easier. The content taught is always from a lecturer in that field who is already researching and working in that area, which results in a better understanding as a whole to all the students. The standard of teaching is excellent, and all lecturers are very approachable outside of lectures.
What’s the best thing about studying at the University of Birmingham?
The University itself is outstanding in terms of academic excellence and facilities, and the campus itself is just stunning. From the sports centre to the library, food outlets and vast amount of places where you can socialise, study and enjoy your time, it’s pretty apparent that this is not just a great place to study but in general a really nice place to be. It’s really nice to see the campus, and after a long day of studying it really is a great feeling knowing this is your university.
What’s your highlight of your time at the University?
I really enjoyed the opportunity in summer, where I was able to travel to China with the university and 12 other students, it was 2 and a half of the most memorable weeks of my life. We travelled to Beijing, Wuhan and Hong Kong and we stayed at a University campus in each city. We got to know the students at each of the campuses, had loads of great fun going places to shop, eat and we visited many great tourist sites such as The Great Wall of China, The Yellow Crane Tower, The Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, and many more. We received an insight into Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering at each of the universities, the research departments and related research taking place, and the industry as a whole which was really interesting. It really motivated me to do better in my studies, and all in all a very memorable life experience.
What advice would you give to students thinking about studying on the course?
If you are worrying about the difficulty of this course or about the large amount of hours per week, then don’t worry. It is difficult, and it does require a lot of time and effort, but it’s a really enjoyable and interesting at the same time which makes it a lot easier. For example I’m currently working on a group project to make a line following robot, there is a lot of work involved and I have to put a lot of time into it, but it’s really enjoyable so I don’t find it as difficult. Looking at the course outline, there may also be a lot of things which you haven’t studied before, for example with myself I had never studied any type of programming, but in first year they start off from the complete basics, and by the end of the year everyone is on pretty much the same level.
Is there anything extra students thinking about studying on the course should know?
The course also has its own society, where there’s always loads of events from roller discos, nights out, paintballing, football, basketball, go-karting, FIFA tournaments and loads more, there’s always fun things going on for everyone to get involved, and if there’s something you’d want the society to organise, you can put forward your suggestion and they’ll most likely arrange it.